An Educational Weekend at The Green Festival
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 11.13.06
Listening to inspirational speakers, whilst being surrounded by interesting people, innovative products, and consuming delicious organic food and drink is really not a bad way to spend one’s weekend. And what’s more it was all with the aim of promoting sustainable living. The Green Festival, organised by Global Exchange and Co-op America, took place this weekend in San Francisco for the fifth year running. It being my first time I can’t compare the event to previous years or in other cities, but I can say that I was amazed at the scale of the festival and the variety of activities during the three days. Normally being a TreeHugger correspondant at a trade show is kind of like being a vegan at a BBQ! You can sometimes pick at the raw carrots that go with the side dip, but that’s only if your lucky, and you normally leave feeling hungry. Well this weekend was an enormous feast for all the senses and I took the opportunity to gorge myself on all that there was on offer! There were more than 100 speakers, 400 green businesses, interactive workshops, a community action tent, as well as fantastically diverse organic food and uplifting live music. Certainly more than enough to keep this TreeHugger writer busy at the keyboard for weeks to come.
I was lucky enough to see the producer Lawrence Bender talk about the upcoming release of The Inconvenient Truth on DVD. We were shown exclusive extracts of Al Gore’s contribution to the DVD in which he updates the film’s topics with information that has been released over the last year since they finished the film. We’re looking forward to this DVD being at the top of everyone’s Christmas lists this year. You can preorder it now on Amazon.
I also caught part of David Suzuki’s talk entitled the Life Of An Eco-Pioneer. It fantastic to see this pioneer of the sustainability movement talking with such passion about the very serious issues that face us today, but also frightening to hear about our reluctance to deal with a problem that scientists have been warning us about for a very long time. Suzuki asked why we have been so slow to react and purported that it is fundamentally un-american not to fight against the threat of Global Warming.
Finally I was initiated into the magical world of mushrooms by the great Paul Stamets, whose talk several people had recommended that I go and see. Now while I love mushrooms, usually on my plate, I really had no idea how much mushrooms, fungi and more specifically mycelium can do to help our planet regenerate itself. After to listening to Paul talk it really seems no exaggeration when he says that mushrooms can save the world. I urge everyone to look at his work and if possible to read his latest book Mycelium Running.
I am sure many of you listened to lots of other fascinating talks over the weekend and encountered many inspiring examples of ways to green your life. Do please let us know which were your favourites and what you learnt. The talks will be available for everyone to listen to on Green Festival Radio, they should be uploaded in the next week or two so keep an eye out. Until then you can listen to talks from the Washington DC event earlier this year. :: Green Festival
ahh i went to the green festival too and it was amazing!!! i swear it was heaven... even after being there the whole day i didn't want to leave :( it was so inspiring!!! and fun and YUMMY oh gosh. the only thing i didnt like was David Korten's speech- he's a little crazy. Anyhow I liked Omar Freilla's about co-ops, and it was amazing how little was thrown away that day!! :O the people there were very polite too... it was extremely crowded, but still surprisingly pleasant. oh and tons of free stuff!! i got two tote bags for free and tons of food. i LOVE the green festival!!! yaaaaaay!!! i should also mention there were a lot of young people there. and women. many women.
I was at the event as well, this also being my first year. I plan to write a fair amount about it, but not for TreeHugger unfortunately :/
I remember standing in front of that sign last year with tears of joy welling up in my eyes. ♥
I went to the Green Festival in DC and it sucked. I wish it was the same as the one you had out West. Here it was basically a $15 fee to walk into a exhibition hall for green merchants. They gave some stuff out, but most of them were trying to sell goods. I'm a big green proponent, but I was REALLY disappointed by the DC Green Festival. I hope they find a way to make it more like the one you experienced next time around.
It was an incredible weekend, and Leonora, for those of us who have been to Green Festival several times over the years, it seemed like we saw a more diverse crowd in terms of age, ethnicity, and income. It's another example of the great mainstreaming that is under way in the green movement. Out in DC a few weeks back, the Green Festival saw a 45% increase in attendence over last year, according to Alisa Gravitz and Co-op America. Kevin Danaher from Global Exchange has an excellent idea in making this a year-round location...all you have to do is look at the Ferry Plaza project to see that there is a business model in making green/sustainable products and services available in a year-round format, particularly in San Francisco. I so enjoyed listening to the "A" list speakers that this great event draws, and especially appreciated Mark Hertsgaard's presentation on policy and climate change, and Van Jones' presentation on, well, just about anything he ever talks about...can this guy rouse a crowd or what? These are two very smart people who make a lot of sense, no matter what your political orientation happens to be. Try and catch them at a future conference if you haven't had the opportunity to attend one of their presentations. Lastly, if anyone was fortunate enough to have had a sample of Cafe Gratitude's new organic, vegan, chocolate-almond-raspberry-coconut candy bar thing, you no doubt had an opportunity to experience pure joy...at least for a minute!
I loved the show. It's always makes me optimistic about the world for another year. This year was remarkable seeing all the beautiful people (50K?) of all ages, shapes & sizes, with intelligent minds and big smiles. No scowls in sight. Everyone was open, approachable and speaking to each other. Makes you wonder what the world could be like if it was like this everywhere and everyday.
Lots of clothing, cosmetics, food, books, talks, construction mat'l, community forums, etc. But next to no electronic gadgets. Where is the green consumer electronics industry? And how about the transportation industry (hybrids, etc.)? They were largely no-shows. In addition to the boutique smallish firms, I'd like to see bigger companies start to appear and embrace the festival too.